Pasadena Police Officer Elgin Lee conducts the TAC (training advising counseling) instruction to the recruits from the Pasadena Unified school District during the Rio Hondo Police Academy at Rio Hondo College on July 31, 2019. (Photo By James Carbone)

It’s not easy being mean for Pasadena police officer

By all accounts, Pasadena Police Officer Elgin Lee is nice. Maybe even, super nice. He’s a former Eagle Scout, a trained medic and he has spent the last 12 years focusing his police work on tackling mental health and homelessness in Pasadena. But one day a week, Lee, 39, hangs up his Mr. Congeniality merit badge to become a Training, Advising and Counseling (TAC) officer at Rio Hondo Academy. Here cadets learn how to become police officers, but they also learn that in the real world – not everyone is nice. “No one believes me when I tell them I…